Olympic Day: USA Men’s Volleyball Team Tunes Up in Dallas

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DALLAS — We’re just 34 days away from the Summer Olympics in Rio, and Friday, the Dallas Sports Festival hosted Olympic Day with the US Men’s Volleyball team in town for some tune-up games before set off to try to conquer the world.

The feeling never gets old either. Just ask Reid Priddy, who was on the gold medal team in 2008.

“This will be my fourth games, and it’s the most special so far because of all the hurdles,” said Priddy. “I had double knee surgery two years ago. Obviously, I’m getting in my later thirties, so for all those reasons.”

And there’s added excitement for Kawika and Erik Shoji, two brothers from Hawaii who will be repping the red, white and blue together.

“It’s awesome. I think we’re the first brothers to be named to the US Olympic Team, so that’s a big honor and it’s just exciting to be able to go through the whole process,” said Kawika Shoji.

“It’s pretty insane. We grew up watching the Olympics and just dreaming of reaching this pinnacle of our sport so to get the news that we made the team and to be training for 35 more days is pretty insane,” added his brother Erik.

Even with all the bad news out of Rio in the lead up to these games, that hasn’t dampened these athletes Olympic spirit.

“This is what we look forward to every four years, and so we’re looking forward to going back down there,” said Priddy. “We were just there two weeks ago, no issues, and we’ll take the proper precautions and come out and play hard.”